rescue911fandomcom-20200213-history
Conrail Train
Location: Ramsey, New Jersey Date: May 1, 1989 Story Ramsey, New Jersey is the kind of town where nothing much ever happens. But on May 1, 1989, something frightening did! 35-year-old train conductor Anthony Falzo was on a short hall from New York to New Jersey with his engineer, Richard Campana. "We had nineteen loaded cars and one engine. We were eastbound on New Jersey Transit approaching Ramsey," remembers Richard. Kate Pritchard was just returning home from doing errands in town. She was wearing a black shirt and white pants. "My usual deal on Monday mornings was to do my grocery shopping. So I packed the kids in the car, we went to the grocery store, and then came home. I guess it was about a quarter to 11:00 when we came home," she said. When Kate and her husband, Gary, were looking for a safe neighborhood in which to raise a family, this place had seemed perfect. "We live in a cul-de-sac with many, many children, and they're always playing out there knowing that they're not allowed in the woods and that they're not allowed to even go near the train tracks at all!" recalls Kate. Kate trusted her three-year-old son, Todd, to look after his one-year-old brother, Scott, while she took the groceries into the house. "There's such an amazing difference between these two boys. Todd has always been very cautious and more intense. I mean, ever since he was little, if you told him, 'Don't touch that because you'll be hurt if you do,' he wouldn't. And then there's Scott. I think if I had Scott first, I probably wouldn't have had another one until he was in college! He's fearless, he's just basically fearless," declared Kate matter-of-factly. The tracks were temptingly close, less than 300 feet from the Pritchard family home! While Kate was unloading the groceries and bringing them into the house, Todd and Scott were instructed to stay near the driveway and play. She could hear the distant blast of a train horn, presumably an Amtrak or possibly a Passenger Express locomotive. "We'd always had a fear of the tracks. In the back of your mind, you would think, 'God, I just hope these kids learn that they should never go there!'" remembers Kate. But on this morning, they did. Todd and Scott made their way through the woods to play on the tracks just beyond. As Anthony and Richard made their way into Ramsey, the sound of the speeding train caught the attention of the boys. After making their way through the trees, they climbed to the top of the steep roadbed, knelt down along the tracks, and began to play with their toy cars and trucks. Meanwhile, the train was chugging along down the railway at a speed of 40 miles per hour. "I saw something moving and it moved like something alive, not like wind blowing something. Whatever it was, we were about to hit it!" said Richard. Within seconds of seeing that it was two boys, Richard slammed down on the emergency brakes and blew the train horn at full power! Its blast and Anthony's words exploded at the same time: "Kids on the track!" "When the engineer just let his hand down on the whistle and it just kept blowing, I just had this horrible gut feeling that something was definitely wrong with the boys," said Kate sadly. Anthony sprang through the cab door onto a narrow running board six feet above the wheels and raced to the front of the swaying train. Climbing quickly down a steel ladder, he paused at the bottom, two feet above the roadbed flashing by. Now he could clearly see the boys, who were sitting alongside the rail. Anthony waved wildly, but they could barely hear his voice over the loud horn. "Get away! Get away!" yelled Anthony frantically. Kate remembers running toward the tracks from the driveway. "I couldn't get out there fast enough. Those legs of mine just wouldn't move fast enough. I got to the end of the driveway and the whole time, I was screaming out for Todd. I was just screaming his name," she recalls. Anthony lost view from the front of the engine and couldn't see in front of him. The wide snow plow on the front had only 12 inches of clearance. Even with the brakes on, the weight of the 250-ton train carried it more than a hundred feet past where the boys were playing on the tracks. "As soon as it stopped, I jumped off to see what had happened and if Tony was all right. I thought, 'That little boy was killed,'" said Richard. Anthony told Richard to call a dispatcher and that they needed police and an ambulance, and Richard agreed. "I just remember seeing the snow plow hit the smallest child in the head. Automatically, I'm thinking, 'He's having severe head injuries,'" said Anthony sadly. Meanwhile, Todd was jumping up and down on the railway, crying hysterically. "Oh my God, what happened?!" asked Kate frantically. Anthony twisted to face her. "Ma'am," he said in a calm voice, "go back to your house. Call the police and ambulance." Kate, only half hearing him, extended her arms to take Scott. Anthony spoke again, more sharply, "Ma'am, listen! Go to your house and call the police—call an ambulance. Go!" At 11:05am, Kate's call for help came in. Fifteen-year veteran Glenn Carpovich was the first officer on the scene. "When I heard the call, I expected the worst. Normally, a person involved with a train to any degree is a fatal accident," he explained. After Kate made the call, she reached Gary via his beeper. "I dialed my husband, and I said, 'Scott's been hit by a train. Just get home as fast as you can.' I did not know the danger of what state Scott was in. Blood was coming out of his nose, mouth, and the top of his head. Anthony said, 'We need to get you to the hospital.' And I said, 'Please just wait a few more minutes for my husband.' Knowing that if he got there and saw us gone, the poor guy would've just fallen apart! I wanted him there with me," she said tearfully. Trivia The photos of Kate wearing a black shirt and white pants were taken from this segment. 1.jpg 2.jpg 3.jpg 4.jpg Category:1989 Category:New Jersey Category:Railroad Accidents